9 Facts About Bacteria (That May Surprise You)

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It turns out, there are more reasons to love bacteria than to fear them — the latest being a the discovery of a new bacteria-based antibiotic that allows scientists to fight infections that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year! But there’s more to bacteria than their antibiotic qualities. Check out these nine facts — some of them may surprise you:

This fact gets me every time. For every human cell that makes up your body, there are 10 cells of bacteria living on your body. Here’s another one – there are are more bacteria in your intestine then there are people on earth. So in sum: your body is just plain full of bacteria.

2. You Eat Bacteria. On Purpose. And You Probably Like It

Many foods are created by purposefully adding bacteria. Some examples: common snacks like yogurt, certain cheeses, sourdough bread and some pickles – and increasingly popular foods like Kimchi, tempeh, sauerkraut, kefir and miso. More and more research supports the benefits of these “good bacteria”-rich foods and says they help aid digestion.

3. Some Bacteria Are Bad … and Some Are Really Bad

Some bad bacteria are annoying but relatively harmless – like the bacteria that cause pimples or the ones that make your breath bad. And then some bacteria are very bad – like bacteria that cause infections and bacterial contagions that can be fatal. Luckily, of all the bacteria out there, less than 1 percent will actually make you sick.

Bacteria in our guts help us digest our food, and now, scientists say our microbial diversity might also cause or prevent obesity. They hope that by studying human bacteria in the guts of mice, science will one day be able to figure out how our bacteria can keep us slim.

The thing that excites scientists the most about all their new studies and research is that bacteria can be changed – and they can be changed fast. You can’t change your genes. Meaning, if you have a genetic disease, your DNA is stuck with that disease and you have to take drugs to fix it. But the genetic makeup of your bacteria can be altered. So, if you have a disease caused by bacteria, you could theoretically alter your bacteria’s DNA by changing up the bacterial diversity in your body. This shake-up would rid you of the disease entirely. And now that science is showing a lot more diseases are caused by bacteria than previously thought, this new way of thinking might help save and improve millions of lives.

They were around before the Dinosaurs. So yeah – they’re that kinda old. Researchers claim to have found bacteria from more than 3 and a half billion years ago, and they say the particles will be here on Earth long after the human race is gone.

Some of this is really cool and strange at the same time! But, the thing about bacteria might mean less obesity is a little strange. Because not all of the stuff in that article was proved as positive. It said ” scientists say our microbial diversity might also cause OR prevent obesity.”. And I think no one really wants to be obese. So all I’m saying is that maybe we shouldn’t be all woop-di-do about this.